The Prophecy of Doom
by Silvertongue90
Summary: When I woke up this morning, I was a regular kid and self-proclaimed closet nerd of all things Egyptian. I was nobody special. That all changed when I met the Kane siblings...
1. I Plunge To My Death

It's bad enough that its raining. If I had known this morning that I would fall off the side of a mansion and be carried away by a griffin, I would have stayed in bed. But I'm getting ahead of myself, that doesn't come until later in this story.

My day started like any other typical day since I moved in with my aunt four weeks ago.

She hollered up the stairs, waking me for breakfast, and I tripped and stumbled across the slightly messy floor with my eyes half shut. Some how I always make it to the kitchen without breaking anything important. My mom used to say it was something I inherited from my dad. That was back when she thought all his habits were endearing.

Breakfast as usual was clumpy oatmeal that stuck to my teeth and tasted awful no matter how much honey and milk I used. I honestly think that's the only breakfast food Aunt Lucinda knew how to make.

Afterwards, I helped clean up the kitchen, then trudged to my room to get dressed.

That's where my typical day ended. Normally, I spend the rest of the time in my room only coming out for meals. Today, I wanted to do something different. If I spent another minute in this house pretending my life hadn't been turned upside down, I was going to scream.

I tossed on ripped jeans and a t-shirt with a rock band logo across the front. A quick glance at the mirror showed one side of my dull brown hair to be flat. I ran a hand through it until it stood up on end, looking like I had been in a wind storm.

I shrugged and turned away, snagging my wallet on the way out the door.

Taking the stairs two at a time, I went into the living room where Aunt Lucinda was dusting her already impeccably clean apartment.

"I'm going out."

She looked up, startled. "Oh! Do you parents normally let you out by yourself?"

"Yep," I said, inching my way toward the door. What did she think I was - a dog?

"I don't know, Jake, " she answered doubtfully. "Are you sure—"

"I'll be back before dinner," I said and dashed out into the hall corridor. The elevator was two feet down the hall and had an out of order sign taped against the door. I guess I was taking the stairs.

My aunt lived on the third floor of the five story apartment complex. I have never liked stairwells. The doors cut off all sound so the only thing I could hear were my own footsteps. I kept thinking that someone was on the next level waiting for me. Maybe I watch too many horror movies.

I breathed easier when I pushed open the door that led me into the lobby. The ebony skinned doorman, Ralph greeted me. "Aren't you Ms. Cowell's nephew?"

"Yes, sir."

"Didn't your aunt say your were a genius or somethin'?"

"I wouldn't exactly say I'm a genius," I muttered, feeling my face heat up.

Ralph just smiled. "Would you like me to hail a taxi for you?"

"Yes please."

I followed him outside and watched with amazement as he stepped to the curb and whistled loudly, waving his arm in the air.

A taxi slowed down and slid next to him. I think it's cool how some people have the knack for that. Whenever I tried it the taxis won't stop and the pedestrians give me a strange look.

The doorman opened the taxi door for me. "Where would you like this fine fellow to take you?"

"Um," I racked my brain for anything I knew about Brooklyn. Maybe I should have studied up on the city before I left home. Of course I hadn't exactly been in the right mind frame for studying. "Where do you suggest?"

"You like museums? The Brooklyn Museum boasts of one of the largest collection of ancient Egyptian art in the U. S. Anyone who visits Brooklyn should make at least one trip there."

"Okay, I guess I'll go there." I'll admit I'm a closet nerd. I liked history, especially anything that had to do with Egypt or Rome. I was trying to play cool and act like the museum was beneath me. Inside, I was squealing like a fan girl or maybe I should say boy because squealing like a girl would be weird. And uncool.

I hopped into the taxi and he shut the door behind me, then gave directions to the driver. Ralph winked at me. "Have fun!"

Whenever I sit in a car I zone out. I couldn't tell you where I was or even how to get to where we were going. That annoyed my dad a lot, but I can't help it. It's like the car lulls me into a trance.

The next thing I knew we were pulled up along side the museum and the driver was telling me the fare.

I dug into my wallet and paid him in cash giving him an extra buck as a tip. I know a lousy tip. To be perfectly honest, I gave him extra because I didn't have any quarters.

"Keep the change," I said and he gave me a sour look.

Once inside, I paid for the fee and was told that the Egyptian Galleries was on the third floor. I decided to go ahead and start there. I looked at the artifacts, reading their history and slowly made my way to the Egypt Reborn section.

I was looking at the statuary that according to the plaque was dated anywhere between 3500 to 3600 B.C.E. when I became aware that I wasn't alone.

Two kids were hanging out farther ahead of me in the section where the Romans became involved in Egypt. Normally, I wouldn't have even noticed them or cared, except these two were different.

The boy was a tall African-American and dressed in a white tunic with equally white pajama bottoms. Was that a karate uniform? He had a bag slung over his shoulder and held a boomerang in his hand. I wondered how he had gotten through security with that thing. He looked about my age, maybe a year older.

The girl had caramel-colored hair and dressed similarly to the boy, except while he wore some kind of weird loafers, she had some mean looking combat boots. Oh, and her hair was streaked with blue. She had a staff in her hand and a backpack over one shoulder.

It was clear that they were fighting about something. Curious to find out what they were arguing about I moved closer.

"—such a wimp, Carter!"

"I'm not a wimp!" Carter protested. "Remember what happened last year when we tried to get the first part of the Book of Ra? We should come back tonight armed with spells that will counteract the magic here."

"Or I could break open the display case and we zip out of this fun house through the back door."

"Argh! You are so impossible sometimes."

"You're no prize—"

The next thing I knew the display case next to them exploded. I dove to the ground, covering my head from the shards. Alarms all around the room blared loudly.

"Sadie! Look what you did."

"Don't blame me! You're as much at fault as I am."

"Never mind, get the scroll!"

I looked up in time to see the girl, Sadie, grab a papyrus from the broken display. I scrambled to my feet. "Hey!" I shouted. "Put that back!"

Carter pushed Sadie away. "Run!"

I glanced around frantically for security. Where the heck were they? I threw myself at Carter, tackling him to the ground. His boomerang clattered to the floor and I picked it up. I threw it at Sadie and it hit her square in the back, knocking her off her feet. I was a little surprised when the boomerang came back to me and I barely caught it before it clipped me in the jaw.

Carter pushed me off and tried to run, but I used the boomerang to grab his ankle and trip him. He fell back down and I raced after Sadie, who was trying to stand up.

When she saw me coming she reached for her staff and I had no choice but to kick her hand. Sadie howled and snatched it back to cradle against her chest. I picked up the staff.

"Look, I don't want to hurt you. Please, just hand over the scroll and I'll tell the guards it was accident."

She scowled at me. "I don't know who you bloody well think you are and I don't care. Give me my staff back or I'll feed you to Philip of Macedonia!"

Before I could ask who in the world was Philip of Macedonia, I saw her eyes flicker behind me and I whirled around to face Carter who had been trying to sneak up on me.

I'll admit I was confused and wondering when those stupid security people were coming. Couldn't they hear the blaring sirens? The only thing I could think of was to keep the two thieves occupied until the authorities came.

I swung the staff at him and Carter ducked out of the way. Then I spun on my heel and swung it at Sadie who had tried to reach for the boomerang I threw at her. I kicked it away and it slid behind the display of a sarcophagus.

Unfortunately, that gave the other boy the opportunity to come up with his own staff, though I didn't know where it came from.

Our staffs clashed and then quicker than thought, Carter swung again and clipped me on the side of the head.

Pain temporarily blinded me as I shook my head. When my eyes cleared, Carter was just about to hit me again. I jumped out of the way and the movement jarred my head. The throbbing made me mad and I honestly don't know how to explain what happened next.

With a yell, I hit the floor with the butt of my staff and the ground shook. Then my staff turned into a serpent. I shrieked and threw it on the ground, staring at it wide eyed. What in the world just happened?

Carter's eyes also widened in astonishment or fear. I couldn't tell which since I was busy freaking out about the whole thing.

The snake crawling toward me was the last thing I saw before something struck me on the back of the head.

* * *

I heard snuffling near my head. I wanted to see what the noise was, except I couldn't open my eyes. Instead, I groaned and the snuffling stopped. It felt like someone had taken a sledge hammer to my skull

Had I hit my head on something and now Aunt Lucinda was taking care of me? With great effort, I willed my eyes to open and came face to face with a baboon. I screamed and flung the animal off me.

The baboon caught the side of the bed before he could fall and swung himself back up. "_Agh_!"

I stared at it in surprise. For some reason I had understood what he had said. _"__Stupid (rude word)! I will flatten you with a basketball."_

Either I was in a crazy dream or had gone insane.

"That's Khufu," said a familiar voice. "He doesn't like strangers, but he'll warm up to you eventually."

I turned to see the two kids from the museum had entered the room and everything that had happened flooded back to me. "You!" I tried to sit up and winced as a wave of dizziness washed over me. "What did you do to me?"

"I hit you on the head," the girl, Sadie I believe her name was, gave me a smug grin.

The boy, Carter, threw her a look. "We're sorry about that. We couldn't just leave you so we brought you here to the Twenty-first Nome."

"The what gnome? You know what, I don't want to know." I threw the covers off me and slid off the bed. "I'm going home and reporting you two to the police." Next thing I knew something had thrown me back onto the bed and a pressing weight sat on my chest. I stared into the scary fangs of the baboon and gulped.

"Get this thing off me!"

"Khufu, I think we can handle this," said Carter.

Khufu the baboon, continued to stare me down. The only thing I could think about was how sharp his teeth were.

"He won't eat you," Sadie told me as if she had read my mind. "He only eats things that end with O." Suddenly her face turned green. "Your name doesn't end with an O does it?"

"Khufu, get off him!" Carter said in exasperation.

With an "_Agh_!" he reluctantly did as he was told. Again, I understood what he said and that fact was just scary.

"Why can I understand him?" my voice was on the edge of hysteria.

Carter and Sadie looked at each other. "You know what Khufu is saying?" Sadie looked like her eyes were going to pop out.

There was only one thing that made sense to me. "I'm dreaming aren't I? I slipped in the museum and hit my head or worse I haven't even gotten up yet and I'll have to endure Aunt Lucinda's clumpy oatmeal again!"

"Clumpy oatmeal?" Carter looked puzzled.

"That's my Gran's specialty," Sadie replied knowingly. "It tastes even worse than her biscuits."

I ignored both of them, focusing instead on controlling my breathing. My head started feeling light headed and for a moment I thought I was going to pass out.

"I think he's hyperventilating," said a distant voice.

A sharp slap to my cheek brought me back and I scowled at the girl who was proudly examining her handiwork. "Put you head between your legs," she ordered.

I did as I was told and after a few moments I stopped gasping for air and felt slightly better.

"You hungry?" she asked. "I'm starved, lets go get something to eat and we'll try to explain everything to you."

In something of a daze I followed them around the house, catching glimpses of artifacts that looked suspiciously Egyptian. Maybe they were art thieves.

Then we came to a room that made my jaw drop.

"This is the Great Room," Sadie announced, like she was a tourist guide at a museum. It really was a Great Room. The ceiling was at least four stories high and held up with pillars that had those Egyptian hieroglyphs decorating them. There was a fireplace and TV surrounded by comfortable looking leather chairs and at the far end of the room, double doors with the Eye of Horus stamped on it.

What really caught my attention though was the thirty foot tall statue. It was the figure of a human body with an ibis head. He held a scribe stylus in one hand and an open scroll in the other.

"Thoth," I breathed. "The Egyptian god of knowledge and wisdom."

Carter and Sadie gave each other a look again.

"You know about Egyptian mythology?" the boy said.

"Yeah," I replied absentmindedly. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life and there was something else. It was almost like the statue was trying to tell me something. There was an itch in the back of my head. Almost like a tingling feeling of something I should know.

Sadie snorted. "You don't look like the type of guy who would care about dusty old statues."

That pulled me out of my reverie. Right, I was supposed to pretend I didn't like stuff this kind of stuff. "I don't."

"Sure you don't. You were looking at that statue like Carter looks at Zia."

"Hey! I could say the same thing about Walt or Anubis."

"Oh please! Ancient history. Let's get some lunch before our guest faints again."

"I didn't faint!" I shouted indignantly. "I just got a little dizzy." I had decided I didn't like Sadie much.

With one last look at Thoth, I followed them out to the veranda where a table next to a fountain had heaps of food already spread out. Did they have a servant I didn't know about who prepared this when I wasn't looking?

I saw some ham and dill sandwiches and my mouth started watering. I hadn't had a decent sandwich since I left California. My aunt didn't believe in feeding healthy boys junk food. Though who was to say a ham sandwich was junk food?

I sat down without waiting for them and piled my plate high with sandwiches, chips, some veggies, and blocks of cheese.

When I bit in to my sandwich, my eyes rolled into the back of my head and my tongue felt like it was going to explode from overload. Wow, it felt great to taste real food again!

"Hungry much?" Sadie muttered under her breath. "When was the last time you ate?"

I glanced down at my plate sheepishly. "This morning."

"Well, that would explain it," Carter nodded. "You've been sleeping all afternoon."

Sadie had the decency to look a little contrite.

"What?" I glanced at the sky and was startled to realize that it was evening, probably close to dinner time. "I have to go! My aunt will be going crazy wondering where I am."

"No! You can't go yet." Carter stood up awkwardly and I wondered if he had intended to push me back in my seat.

"Look, if this is about the museum, I won't say a word. It's none of my business whether or not you steal priceless artifacts."

"We don't steal—okay, maybe we stole the scroll, but we had to!" Sadie protested.

"Please sit down," Carter said. "Don't you want to know how you made the staff turn into a snake?"

Up until now, I had forgotten about that. Now that I was reminded of the strange incident I realized that I did want to know how that happened. Reluctantly, I sat down and reached for a chip. "Make it quick. I really do have to get home before my aunt calls the cops."

For a moment neither of them said anything. They seemed to be having a silent conversation among themselves and I could almost understand what they were saying.

_You tell him._

_No, you. _

_You're the one that knocked him on the head._

_Well, you're the one who wouldn't let me break the display in the first place._

"Guys, either you talk or I walk."

Sadie glared at Carter one last time and then turned to me. "All right. The reason why your staff turned into a snake is because you're a magician."

I stared at both of them. They looked serious. A laugh escaped me. "Excuse me?"

Hesitantly, Carter started this time. "We're magicians to the House of Life, following the paths of the Egyptian gods. We -"

"You two are crazy," I interrupted. "The gods are a myth."

"The way our Uncle Amos explained it," began Carter. "Is that a legacy that powerful doesn't simply cease to exist. In Ancient Egyptian times, the gods were very real, but when Egypt fell they were locked up by the House of Life to prevent the gods from creating disaster and chaos, our mother who was a Diviner, had a vision that the demon, Apophis would break from his prison and swallow the sun. Unless," here Carter hesitated before going on. "Unless, she and our dad released the gods from their imprisonment so that magicians and gods could relearn how to work together again to prevent chaos from rising. Our mom died to prevent that from happening."

Sadie cut in. "To make a long story short we saved the world blah, blah, blah, and have been teaching others to follow the path of the gods since. How we missed you I don't know. We should have found all the magicians in Brooklyn."

"I'm not from Brooklyn." I stood, this time determined to leave. "You two seem nice, but you clearly have a few loose screws. If I were you I would check myself into an asylum."

I headed for the door when something massive suddenly reared out of the water in the fountain. I froze when I saw it was an enormous albino crocodile. Its red eyes stared at me as if daring me to take one more step toward the door.

"That's Philip of Macedonia," Sadie told me. "He'll love you forever if you feed him bacon."

I gulped nervously, remembering her threat from earlier to feed me to him. "Where did you steal him from, a zoo?

"We didn't steal him. He's like a guardian or lucky charm for the Twenty-first Nome."

"He's also technically not a real crocodile," Carter added.

He seemed real enough to me, and why the heck did they keep mentioning gnomes? Slowly, I backed toward the door keeping my eyes on the crocodile.

"Sadie, show him," Carter told her quietly.

She grinned. "With pleasure."

Picking up her plate she threw it at my head. Before I could duck she held out her hand and shouted, "_Ha-di_!" For a moment, blue hieroglyphs burned the air around her hand and then the plate exploded.

A piece grazed my forehead before I could move out of the way. I could feel blood trickling down my face.

"Sadie!"

"Oops." She didn't look all that sorry.

"What was that?" I wiped the blood away with my shirt.

"That was the Divine word for destroy."

I pushed myself to my feet. "Yeah, whatever. I've seen better magic tricks then that."

"Oh man, I didn't want to have to do this," Carter moaned to himself.

Before I could ask what he didn't want to do he started glowing.

A blue shimmer covered him, lifting him off his feet as some sort of avatar grew until I was staring at a twenty foot glowing Egyptian warrior with a falcon head. Horus, my nerdy side told me.

I could see Carter inside the avatar and he waved at me. The warrior copied his movement. Then he took a step toward me.

I hit the doors running. I could hear them calling for me to come back, but there was no way I was going back to that freak show. As I came closer to where a porch or something should be I realized that I was looking down at a warehouse.

And did I mention it started pouring buckets? It was like the goddess of rain, Tefnut wanted to exact her vengeance on me for not believing in her. I tried to stop. My foot hit a wet patch and I slid across the floor toward the edge.

I couldn't scream even though I really wanted to and I couldn't catch hold of anything to stop my descent to certain death.

In a last desperate attempt, as I fell over the edge, I tried to snag the ledge. It broke off in my hand and I watched with growing horror as the East River rushed up to meet me.


	2. The Vase Makes Demands

I closed my eyes and prayed for a quick, painless death.

Carter and Sadie were yelling above me. It almost sounded like they were arguing. Leave it to those two to argue 'til their blue in the face while a skinny white dude fell to his death from their mansion.

"Freeeek!"

My eyes flew open. What the heck was that? A large bird was flying toward me at breakneck speed, no wait, that wasn't a bird. The thing had a lion's body with a falcon's head, a wicked looking tail, and wings that moved so rapidly it was almost like looking at a giant hummingbird. Oh, and did I mention that it was twice the size of a real lion?

My nerdy brain, of course, decided to supply me with all the juicy details of the monster. _Egyptian Griffin. Griffins are protectors of treasure and they serve Horus. Extremely loyal, unless you're their enemy._

Suddenly, death by drowning didn't look so bad.

I tried flapping my arms to get away from the monster. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but there was no way I was going to become Griffin food.

"Freeeek!" the Griffin announced again and swooped down the last few yards, grabbing my arms with its sharp talons.

I wish I could say I stayed calm in the face of danger, unfortunately, I screamed like a little girl. I closed my eyes again, expecting the monster to toss me up in the air and down me in one gulp.

Instead, it let go of me and I fell back onto the veranda at Carter and Sadie's feet. I sat up shakily and made sure all my limbs were in tact. Someone pressed a cup in my hand and I gratefully took a sip. It was hot tea and it must have had something in it because I started to feel calmer.

"You all right?" Carter asked me.

I laughed mirthlessly. "You're kidding right? I have had plates thrown at my head, nearly given a concussion, almost drowned, and saved by a falcon headed bird!" I had to take a deep breath to push back the panic that nearly overwhelmed me. "So, maybe all this Egyptian stuff is real, I don't care, don't want nothing to do with it. I just want to go home."

I sniffled like a little kid, embarrassed that I was having a melt down in front of witnesses.

"I know this is a lot to take in," Carter said. "Believe me, when I learned about all this stuff I freaked out like you did. It's your choice whether or not you want to be part of the House of Life, though I should warn you, when a magician learns what he is he becomes more aware of, well, all the crazy stuff that goes on in the world. So, you could walk away and never see us again, but craziness will just follow you. Sadie and I have tried several times to have a normal day and it never works out."

Sadie snorted and muttered something about her birthday under her breath. In a louder voice she said, "And of course you'll learn magic. What boy would pass that up?" Her English accent deepened as she crossed her arms and sent me a challenging glare.

I was tempted to tell her that this boy would, yet I hesitated. That longing I felt when I had stared at the statue of Thoth came back and something in my gut told me that if I passed up this opportunity I would regret it for the rest of my life.

"Okay," I finally said. "I'll join your secret club or whatever, but I really have to get home now."

"Meet us back here at nine tomorrow morning," Carter told me. He gave me directions for how to find this place again. "You'll be able to meet the other students then, right now they're a little—busy."

I had a feeling there was something he wasn't telling me, judging by his spooked look I would say it was something big. Sadie also avoided my eyes and I decided I probably didn't want to know.

"All right, nine o'clock tomorrow, see you all then." I left their strange mansion and hailed a taxi, giving the driver directions to my aunt's apartment. Carrie, according to her ID, liked to talk and asked me a bunch of questions that I mechanically answered because my head was buzzing with all that had happened.

I still half wondered if I was dreaming and would wake up soon to find the world was just as ordinary as it had always been.

When Carrie pulled up to the apartment duplex, I paid her and this time gave a generous tip using my credit card. She wished me a good night and then I walked up to the glass door.

Ralph opened it for me, looking concerned. "How much trouble am I in?"

The corners of his eyes creased as he smiled. "You might not be in too deep if you hustle upstairs right now."

"Thanks," I said and took a step toward the stairwell when Ralph's deep voice stopped me.

"You look troubled. Something on your mind?"

For a crazy moment I actually considered telling him all about my day. Yeah, that would have gone over well. I would be carted off before I knew what was going on. "Nah," I shrugged, trying to act like a happy-go-lucky teenager. I even plastered a smile on my face, though I doubt it fooled him since it felt fake to me. "Just thinking about all the cool stuff I saw at the museum. Thanks for recommending it to me."

To my surprise I was telling the truth. I was thankful that he had told me about the museum. Huh, go figure. Maybe all this stuff about gods and magic wouldn't be so bad after all.

He tipped his hat at me. "You're quite welcome. And— if you ever want to talk I'll be happy to listen."

"Thanks," I said again. "Well, I should go show my aunt that I'm still alive. She didn't call the cops did she?" The terrifying thought suddenly occurred to me.

Ralph chuckled. "She wanted to. I was able to persuade her to wait a little longer. Told her I had sent you to the Brooklyn Museum and you probably lost track of time. Though she _was_ surprised and seemed to be under the impression that you didn't like history." He gave me a reproachful look.

I wasn't sure how he knew either. He was way too observant. "Yeah, well, I should go." With that I bolted for the stairs, taking them two at a time until I reached my floor. I approached my aunt's place and knocked on the door, remembering that I had forgotten to see if she had an extra key.

I heard shuffling inside and then the door swung open to reveal Aunt Lucinda with red puffy eyes. Before I knew it, I was engulfed in a tight hug. "Where were you? I am never letting you step foot outside this house again!"

I winced. "Sorry, Aunt Lucinda. I—I got caught up in everything at the museum and lost track of time. I didn't think to leave until one of the guards found me and told me that it was almost closing time."

I'm a lousy liar and it sounded bad even to me. Surprisingly, my aunt bought the story. She dried her eyes and kept touching my hair like she wanted to make sure I was really there or maybe she was trying to flatten the mess.

"Are you hungry? I made eggplant for dinner."

Yeah, no, definitely not. "Um, I kind of ate on my way home because I missed lunch and was starving." That was more or less true. "I think I'll just go to bed."

"All right." She gave my hair one last pat and I trudged up the stairs, then threw myself on the bed, not bothering to change. I must have been more exhausted than I realized because I soon fell asleep.

* * *

All the gods in the world forbid that I actually get a decent night's sleep without anymore craziness happening. But of course, life seemed to like playing mind games with me recently.

I felt this sort of call beckoning me to follow it. I didn't want to, yet it felt like I shouldn't resist. So I gave in. That's when the crazy started happening. I floated out of my body. Literally.

I looked down at my sleeping form, then I looked at myself and had to stifle a shriek. I had the body of a chicken with my head sticking out on top. It was the ugliest, most disturbing thing I had ever seen.

_I'm dreaming. This can't be real._

Yet, there was something niggling at the back of my head like I should know what this meant. I didn't have time to think about it because that call came again, this time much stronger.

I felt myself being pulled along, passing through Brooklyn and Manhattan at an incredible speed until everything passed in a blur. After what felt like several minutes, I slowed down. I had a great view of the landscape and was surprised that I recognized the place from numerous pictures I've studied of this area. It was the Valley of Kings.

_Figures that my subconscious would dream about Egypt of all places._

All though I had to admit that this was the most realistic dream I had ever had. I saw everything like I was really there in the flesh.

My bird form was once again tugged to go a certain way and I flew through burial chambers, zigzagging this way and that until I came to a dead end.

Instead of stopping, I was carried straight into the wall and melted through. I found myself in a small square room with very little hieroglyphs decorating the walls. The air tasted stale and musty. Somehow I doubted that archeologist had discovered this hidden room. Which was surprising since I thought they had combed this place thoroughly.

There were no sarcophagi in the cramped space. In fact, the only thing in it was a crumbling stone table with a malachite vase. Obviously, this room hadn't been meant for anyone important.

I knew the pharaohs had made smaller chambers for their clay servants to serve them in the afterlife; however, even those were decorated nicely. No one had put much effort into this room.

I flew closer to the walls, studying the hieroglyphs, wishing I could read them. There was probably an entire story told on these four walls and it was in a language I couldn't read. I mentally kicked myself for going to summer camp last year for two weeks to hang out with my friends rather than take hieroglyph lessons as I had originally planned to. It would have come in handy right about now.

I heard a noise behind me and struggled with my wings to turn around. I was beginning to feel sympathy for birds. It was harder to fly than I thought.

Eventually, I got myself situated and nearly freaked out as I watched the vase move several inches to the right, then a few inches to the left. I gulped and frantically tried to find a way out of here.

Thinking I could melt through the walls again, I flew straight into one and smashed my face against it. Ouch.

The vase was moving vigorously by now and I had no other choice other than to watch it in fascinated horror. Then the vase stilled. Just when I thought whatever had happened was over, there was a deafening sound and the stone table cracked down the middle. The vase toppled over, crashing into the floor, sending pieces scattered everywhere.

A pile of sand spilled out onto the floor and began to swirl, shaping itself into a boy. I think my jaw must have dropped.

The boy was a few years younger than me and had that weird haircut the kids from Ancient Egypt used to wear. A shaved head except for the ponytail to one side.

He was wearing a loincloth and not much else. His wrist had several of those dangling bracelets and his eyes were painted with that black stuff, what did they call it? Kohl. He also wore a golden neck collar.

We stared at each other for several seconds. I don't think I could have said anything if I wanted to. This was the weirdest realistic dream I had ever had.

The kid was giving me a puzzled look. Probably wondering why I was a Jake headed chicken.

"Who am I?"

"Err, what?" That wasn't the question I had been expecting. Maybe something like who are you, why are you here, and what the heck is going on?

"Who am I?" the boy repeated. His eyes started to fill with tears.

Great. Now I had a crying kid on my hands. Or wings. Whatever. "I don't know," I answered truthfully.

"Who am I?" This time he demanded it and his expression had changed from sadness to rage.

"Are you deaf? I said I don't know!"

"WHO AM I?" The kid stomped his bare feet, then lunged for me and suddenly I was waking up in bed. My heart was hammering. For some reason my face hurt.

I took deep breathes and shook my head to get rid of the remnants of my crazy dream. Judging from the sunlight coming in the room it was about seven-thirty. Why hadn't my aunt woken me up—

"Jake, breakfast is ready!"

I pushed myself off the bed and hunted for some clothes. I couldn't show up to the breakfast table with the same clothes I had been wearing yesterday. I picked up a blue t-shirt with a skateboarder on it from the floor and sniffed. Not too bad. I tossed that on and found a pair of jeans underneath a pile of shirts that looked clean.

My aunt was just about to call me again when I came down the stairs. "Oh!' she looked surprised. "You're already dressed."

"Um, yeah. Is it all right if I go back to the Brooklyn Museum today?"

"I don't think so, Jake," Aunt Lucinda shook her head.

"Please," I begged. "I didn't get to see even half the museum yesterday and I really, really, really want to. I promise to set my watch so I'll be home in time for dinner."

Maybe I had laid it on a little too thick, but I was desperate. I would sneak out of the house if I had to.

She must have believed I really wanted to go back to the museum because her face softened. "All right. Don't forget to set your watch."

I made a big show of holding up my arm and setting the time for an hour before dinner. She smiled at my antics, then urged me to eat breakfast.

Yey, lumpy oatmeal. I forced myself to eat every bite all the while wondering what Sadie and Carter were eating.

When I finished I helped Aunt Lucinda clean up the kitchen, then raced upstairs to grab my wallet. After reminding my aunt that I was going out I ran outside and down the stairwell. Ralph was there to greet me and I think I may have responded. I was kind of in a hurry to leave and he probably sensed that since he didn't waste anymore time and called a taxi for me.

"Heading for the museum again?" Ralph's eyes twinkled brightly.

"Uh, yeah."

"Have fun."

I smiled and slid inside.

"Where to?" asked the taxi driver in a bored tone.

I gave him the address Carter had given me last night and the driver turned on the meter, then proceeded to sit there and look at his map. My knee bounced as I impatiently waited for him and kept glancing at the meter. The jerk was doing this on purpose to get more money!

Well, he wasn't going to get a tip from me. Luckily, Ralph knocked on the window. "Anything wrong?"

"Nope," the driver said. "Just looking for where this kid wants to go."

I resented being called a kid.

"Oh, I'm sure you won't have any problems finding it," Ralph told him cheerfully. "This here young man has an appointment to keep that he doesn't want to be late for." The doorman winked at me and stepped back.

The driver grunted and rolled up his window and started the car. I waved to Ralph and he waved back.

Why would he say that I had an important appointment to keep? He didn't know did he; about Sadie and Carter?

I shook my head. Of course he didn't. He just said that for the driver's benefit so he'd get off his lazy duff. Metaphorically speaking of course.

I stared out the window letting the scenery pass by. My head was buzzing with questions I couldn't wait to ask.

After what seemed like forever, we pulled up in front of a warehouse. I craned my neck to look up and saw the mansion shimmering into view. Apparently, the taxi driver couldn't see what I saw and stared dubiously at the warehouse.

"Are you sure you want to be here, kid?"

"Yep."

He turned to look at me and squinted his eyes. I wondered if he was going to call the cops the second I got out. I quickly handed him my credit card and just to keep him quiet, told him how much he could ring up for his tip.

His eyes widened and became greedy.

I hopped out and waited for him to leave. As soon as the taxi turned the corner and disappeared I heard someone call out. I looked over my shoulder to see Carter coming toward me.

"You made it!" He smiled. "I expected to never see you again."

I shrugged. "Yeah, well, I decided to see what it was all about."

"C'mon, we were just sitting down to breakfast." My stomach practically did a gleeful dance at that.

He led me onto the veranda where Sadie and about twelve other kids were waiting. Some of them were just toddlers. Surely, they weren't magicians too? I watched as a four year old boy flicked eggs at everyone.

Carter introduced me to them. "We have eleven more initiates," he explained. "Some of them are visiting their families and others are working on a few problems."

"What problems?" I asked.

"Ah, well some of them have a few loose ends they need to tie," Carter's eyes cut to the little kids. Apparently, he didn't want to scare them with whatever they were really doing.

"And we sent four of our best initiates to sort out the cheese demons and a nasty mob of baboons," Sadie said from the other end of the table.

I blinked. "Cheese demons?"

"Annoying creatures," an ebony skinned man appeared onto the veranda, wearing a fedora and stylish cream suit. There were colorful beads in his hair. "They cause a lot of trouble and are hard to remove."

"Especially when we use exploding donkey curses," said Julian, grinning at a little kid named Felix. They bumped fists.

They were definitely speaking English, but I couldn't understand a word they were saying. And I'm pretty sure those little things walking around Felix's plate were miniature penguins. Were they made out of marshmallows?

"This is our Uncle Amos," Carter introduced the man and I had to tear my eyes away from the penguins. "Uncle Amos, this is our newest recruit. Um, sorry I never got around to asking your name yesterday."

"Jake," I said. "Jake Daniels." I waited for the sniggering.

"Like the whiskey?" a girl, I think her name was Mandie, asked.

I sighed. "No, that's Jack Daniels." Surprisingly, nothing more was said and after everyone was situated at the table we ate. It was really good. I helped myself to the pancakes and sausages.

"Tell me Jake," Amos wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Where are you from?"

"California."

"What're you doing here in Brooklyn?" Sadie asked. Her tone suggested disbelief that anyone would willingly come here.

I gave them the short version of my pathetic life. "I'm visiting my aunt."

"Have you met any movie stars?" said Felix.

Actually I had, though I wasn't sure if I should tell him. Oh, might as well. "Um, yeah I've met a few."  
"Which ones?"

I didn't know if it was just my imagination or if everyone suddenly leaned closer. "Which ones? Oh, um, you know, Brad Pitt." Some of the girls swooned. "And Heath Ledger before he died." No point in mentioning I didn't exactly remember that encounter since I was like three at the time.

One girl, I couldn't remember her name, leaned on her elbows with a dreamy expression. "Heath Ledger was sooo handsome! Kind of scary as the Joker though," she made a face.

Sadie dismissively waved her hand. "Oh, please! It's not like he met Colin Firth or anyone important."

My expression must have given me away because she sat up in her chair. "No way! You have not met him."

"Once," I admitted.

"You've met an awful lot of actors," Carter said somewhat suspiciously.

I shrugged. "My dad travels a lot for his job and occasionally I've gone with him. Sometimes I just happen to be in the right place at the right time." There was no way I was going to volunteer what my dad really did for a living. It was beyond embarrassing.

Amos stood from the table. "I should head back for the First Nome. Don't be a stranger," he waved to everyone and then turned to me. "It was nice meeting you Jake."

"Yeah, same here." He shook my hand, kissed Sadie goodbye, and gave Carter a hug.

When he left Sadie said, "Uncle Amos is in charge of the House of Life. He spends most of his time in the First Nome, but he comes to visit every once in awhile."

"Why do you guys keep mentioning gnomes?"

"Nome, spelled, N-O-M-E. The entire world is separated into Nomes, kind of like factions," Carter explained. "Egypt is the First Nome and basically the capital."

"Oh, that makes more sense."

Carter looked around the table to see everyone was done eating and stood. That seemed to be a signal because all the others stood. I could tell it embarrassed him.

"Come on," Carter gestured for me to follow him as everyone else scattered in several directions. "We'll get you some new clothes, then you can start with the class Magical Problem-Solving 101."

"What's wrong with my clothes?"

"If you're going to learn magic you'll have to start wearing cotton because the other materials interferes with casting spells."

I looked down at my shirt. "This isn't made from cotton?"

"Yeah, it is, though it's not 100% cotton."

He led me into a room and I saw the baboon from yesterday, Khufu laying on the bed surfing channels. There was a tire swing in the corner and a dresser littered with mango and cheerio boxes. As soon as Khufu saw me he bared his teeth and said "_Agh!_"

It didn't shock me as much this time that I understood him. "Oh, yeah, well same to your mother!"

Carter looked at me strangely, but I didn't feel any need to explain myself. "The baboon has his own room?"

"Um, no. This is my room, he likes to stay with me since our initiates took over his den."

He reached into his closet and pulled out black linen pajamas. "These look like they'll fit you."

"I am not wearing pajamas."

Carter's lips twitched. "I usually have t-shirts and stuff that are all cotton, except there was an accident about a week ago. All I have left are these."

Grudgingly, I took them and stared at the baboon. "I'm not dressing in front of him." Khufu stuck his tongue out at me.

"Bathroom's over there," he pointed.

I went inside and changed my clothes, leaving my shirt and jeans on the floor. I looked at myself in the mirror and made a face before stepping back into the room. "I look ridiculous."

"_Agh!_" Khufu agreed.

"You'll get used to it."

"I look like a ninja"

"A very cute ninja," a girl said popping her head into the room to give me a wink. I blushed. She turned to Carter. "We were all wondering where you disappeared to. Felix summoned his penguins again.

Carter muttered something under his breath. "All, right, Jake. You ready for Magical Problem-Solving 101?"

I followed him out of the room and Alyssa walked closely beside me. "What is it about?"

"How to solve problems using magic."

"We call it Whatever Works," Julian came around a corner and fell into step with us. "It's my favorite class."

"I didn't bring any notebooks," I said.

Julian laughed and clapped me on the back. "Don't need one. The only thing you need is to think quickly."

I glanced at Carter anxiously, wondering what Julian meant. His expression gave nothing away and Alyssa smiled at me reassuringly.

Somehow, I wasn't feeling reassured. They led me up the stairs into a basketball court sized room. Two others were already there chasing some penguins around the room.

"Felix, please, I already told you that you can't have penguins in the training room," Carter reminded him in an exasperated tone.

"But they're so cute and useful!" he protested.

I stood out of the way and watched the older initiates help Carter herd them out of the room and then he shut the door.

"All right," Carter stood in the middle of the room. "Remember to try thinking outside the box. Felix, don't use basketballs or shoes."

"Aw, c'mon!" the short kid complained.

Carter handed out five clay statues and had them distributed around the room. What exactly were those statues supposed to do? Maybe we were playing magical tag and they were the bases.

The other three initiates looked excited and I wondered what they were expecting. Carter spoke a word that nobody had to tell me was a magic word. I could feel the power behind it all the way into my pores.

And then the weirdest thing I have ever seen happened. The statues grew taller and then moved. They actually moved!

I didn't have time to gawk at them though because they were advancing on us, carrying wicked looking swords.

At first they marched as a group and then broke off, targeting each of us. I stood frozen as one of them walked toward me.


End file.
